Developers, developers, developers, developers

Team Fail said:

No, by going into the help pages, you can redirect yourself back to the main Google page, where from there, you can search for videos on Google to watch. If you find a way to pull up a custom URL bar, you can direct yourself to watch videos hosted on your computer.

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Oh, I see. Still has to be hosted through a web server running on your computer, I suppose?

Terabyte said:

I can't remember, but did the laptop originally come with Windows 8.x? If it did, then that's really weird that it's acting up in such a manner.

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It came with 7. I took advantage of the early upgrade offer. (I can jump between them as I please, and I think 7 is more stable on my laptop, given Reliability Monitor statistics.)

Zet said:

If it's still under warranty, contact the manufacturer and see if they can fix whatever is wrong with it.

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It's not even their problem when it's no longer the original OS ;)

Candy Cane Forest Elf. said:

Always RMA before taking drastic measures yourself. Always.

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Thing is, my laptop is already out of warranty, and this isn't even one of these things that you can RMA even if it's within warranty.

Twiggy said:

For one reason or another, turns out a lot of background processes were crashing on the 8.1 installation for some reason. While it doesn't really affect day-to-day use, I'd have reservations using a PC like that.

I went back to 7. Again. I think I'll just use 8.x or 9 with a new PC at this rate...

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Welcome to the "I downgraded to Windows 7" club. Smart decision.

My laptop is fine with Windows 8.1 on it.. I've considered putting Windows 7 on it, but then it'd be useless because my laptop didn't come with restore media, and there's no product key sticker on the laptop, either.

Windows 8 has been a really great experience for me on my IdeaPad, and I put 8.1 onto my old eMachine, and albeit the screen is really fuzzy (it always has been), I've had little complaints with it and the machine, which has 2GB of DDR2 RAM at 800MHz and a single-core AMD Sempron processor @ 2.9GHz. Old and cheap, but still no issues with it and 8.1 so far. :3

I'm probably going to keep 8.0 on my laptop for the time being, so as to keep the mass amounts of tweaks and changes I've made to the inner workings of the OS (not to mention all of my file associations). Is there even a worthwhile reason to get 8.1 at this point?

Aeroblast said:

Welcome to the "I downgraded to Windows 7" club. Smart decision.

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It's not even "I downgraded to Windows 7" when the laptop came with Windows 7 to begin with. ;)

Alex said:

I'm probably going to keep 8.0 on my laptop for the time being, so as to keep the mass amounts of tweaks and changes I've made to the inner workings of the OS (not to mention all of my file associations). Is there even a worthwhile reason to get 8.1 at this point?

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You really shouldn't go tweaking the OS itself if you don't really know what you're doing. Anyway, 8.1 should make your life much easier when it comes to working in both desktop and Windows Store environments. (They've made major usability improvements in 8.1 for non-touchscreen users in both environments.)

Aeroblast said:

Welcome to the "I downgraded to Windows 7" club. Smart decision.

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It's not even "I downgraded to Windows 7" when the laptop came with Windows 7 to begin with. ;)

I honestly feel bad for not taking full advantage of Metro apps. The most I've done with Metro apps so far is just watch Netflix and maybe use the weather app once or twice, and nothing more. I dislike the Skype app and prefer it to the desktop app as well.

Also, I thought there was an app for Internet Explorer as well in a fullscreen metro UI, alongside the traditional desktop UI in Windows 8. Did they get rid of the metro IE version? The one in the start menu opens up the desktop version now.

Terabyte said:

I honestly feel bad for not taking full advantage of Metro apps. The most I've done with Metro apps so far is just watch Netflix and maybe use the weather app once or twice, and nothing more. I dislike the Skype app and prefer it to the desktop app as well.

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The thing about the things that came with Windows 8.x is that the tiles on the Start screen can be useful if you know what you're doing. Set them up right, and as soon as you log into your PC, you can see what you want at a glance. Modern UI stuff tends to be less useful when you don't have the right kind of input (a capacitive multi-touch touchscreen), but things should be better with Windows 8.1 and 8.1 Update 1.

Terabyte said:

Also, I thought there was an app for Internet Explorer as well in a fullscreen metro UI, alongside the traditional desktop UI in Windows 8. Did they get rid of the metro IE version? The one in the start menu opens up the desktop version now.

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It never disappeared. Is the default browser Internet Explorer? (Only one Immersive Browser may exist at any given time, and it's the current system default browser.) Check Internet Options and see whether it's set to always open web pages in Internet Explorer on the desktop, too.

Also, feel free to chop up the deleted double post next time if you see it pre-emptively merged

Twiggy said:

It's not even "I downgraded to Windows 7" when the laptop came with Windows 7 to begin with.

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You still took the action to downgrade it, though.

I recently got back into PC gaming and wanted to build a great PC for music production/recording as well. I was using a Macbook for DJing and Production but needed to upgrade obviously. I will spare you the parts for now, unless your interested but it was over $1200. Bought at TigerDirect store on a whim instead of waiting for NewEgg to ship.

I bought Windows 8 for it and was really positive going forward. Yet I did little to no research on the feedback, just the data on how it stack up against 7 number wise. It was a horrible decision and money poorly spent.

Cons: I had to boot to app screen for months until 8.1 was released and it felt like a computer not a xbox or tablet.

I had blue screens related to my motherboard, ASUS Sabertooth, due to driver issues. Completely updated and no resolution was ever found.

I had to use workaround for many programs running in Admin or Windows 7 compatibility mode just for them to run. If they would even work.

The Pro: Slightly faster booting and file transfers.

Well I'll stop ranting now.

Terabyte said:

I honestly feel bad for not taking full advantage of Metro apps. The most I've done with Metro apps so far is just watch Netflix and maybe use the weather app once or twice, and nothing more. I dislike the Skype app and prefer it to the desktop app as well.

Also, I thought there was an app for Internet Explorer as well in a fullscreen metro UI, alongside the traditional desktop UI in Windows 8. Did they get rid of the metro IE version? The one in the start menu opens up the desktop version now.

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Before I downgraded to 7(I'm back on 8.1 now), skype desktop would not work for me unless I disabled one of the .net x files. Has this been fixed yet?

Zet said:

Before I downgraded to 7(I'm back on 8.1 now), skype desktop would not work for me unless I disabled one of the .net x files. Has this been fixed yet?

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I guess it has been. I downloaded the latest version of the Skype desktop version as soon as I got my laptop and it's been running fine.

Aeroblast said:

You still took the action to downgrade it, though.

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The thing is that can you call it a downgrade when the laptop runs 7 for most of its life?

Zet said:

Before I downgraded to 7(I'm back on 8.1 now), skype desktop would not work for me unless I disabled one of the .net x files. Has this been fixed yet?

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Terabyte said:

I guess it has been. I downloaded the latest version of the Skype desktop version as soon as I got my laptop and it's been running fine.

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Usually, when something doesn't work, try updating the non-functional application itself first before resorting to workarounds. Multiple .NET Framework versions are designed to co-exist on the same computer, and you should leave them as is.

Hmm, my desktop did a CHKDSK on its own moments ago, and it found some corrupt and misplaced things apparently. Hopefully it smooths the little chokes I've been having recently.

Twiggy said:

Usually, when something doesn't work, try updating the non-functional application itself first before resorting to workarounds. Multiple .NET Framework versions are designed to co-exist on the same computer, and you should leave them as is.

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It was the latest version at the time. I had to google search about the problem, and someone posted the .NET Framework workaround.

Terabyte said:

Hmm, my desktop did a CHKDSK on its own moments ago, and it found some corrupt and misplaced things apparently. Hopefully it smooths the little chokes I've been having recently.

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It's a good thing that NTFS is self-healing since Vista, no? (It got enhanced as time went on, and in Windows 8, it should be able to handle most file system errors without requiring a restart to run an offline CHKDSK.)

Zet said:

It was the latest version at the time. I had to google search about the problem, and someone posted the .NET Framework workaround.

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Cool. Sometimes, when you have a new OS, compatibility can be a strange thing, even though Microsoft and the Windows team do take pains to ensure as many as possible apps can run in the new Windows version. (Hopefully, by now, you've undone the workaround.)

Hard disk errors? Boy those were fun. Last time I had one of those was when I broke my 1.5TB WD MyBook and my old 320GB MyBook. Good times.

Also, I did some calculations and discovered 64-bit operating systems can handle around 2,822PB of immediate memory. Not that that's ever going to be feasible in the near future, but hey. We won't have to make 128-bit operating systems for a good while. :P

*is setting up a Windows 98 Second Edition virtual machine now that he finally got access to the CD itself in his old home*

*is stuck with a VMware virtual machine with no networking or audio*

(Hey, at least it's enhanced and sorta seamless.)

(Turns out you just have to install the missing drivers (Windows Driver Model, to boot) for the audio devices and explicitly set up a working Internet connection using the provided wizard.)

I had Windows 2000 and Windows XP set up on two virtual machines. 2000 was my work PC and XP was my play PC. Things were simpler back then, what with the seamless ISO loading and ready availability of floppy input. I loved to keep all my documents in WordPad RTFs, since I have a weird nostalgia for working without office on Windows Classic PCs, ever since I read a Windows 98 manual in "Living Color" that I got from a recycling center. Ah, the nostalgia. :P

In fact, I remember writing up fake letters to Bill Gates on the production progress of a new Windows operating system that never got finished. I also wrote flyers for company picnics. What a remembrance, hah! My 10-year-old self in hindsight. So cute :3

It's kind of a shame that Windows Update stopped functioning on Windows 98, though. I had to rely on a site dedicated to providing older versions of software to reinstall... things that might come in handy. (Think DirectX 9.0c versions that still fully support Windows 98, IE6 and Opera 10, KeePass 2.x (score one for something that still supports Windows 98 natively), .NET Framework 2.0... my gosh.)